Registration is open for the second annual Mcommerce Summit: State of Mobile Commerce 2012 conference Thursday, May 3 featuring speakers from Citi, Amazon’s Zappos, Travelocity, 7-Eleven licensee chain Alon Brands and U.S. No. 2 mall owner General Growth Properties. This day-long New York event is a must-attend for retailers, brands, marketers, ad agencies and publishers looking to map out an effective mobile commerce strategy tying in with other channels.

At this exclusive summit organized by this publication at the National Museum of the American Indian across from Manhattan’s Battery Park downtown, attendees will get to listen and meet with key executives moving the needle for mobile commerce. The conference, whose agenda is below, will be limited to only 200 delegates.

“It’s increasingly apparent that mobile commerce is becoming the fastest-growing digital channel for retailers of all sizes, particularly midsize and large whose ecommerce operations are already a force to reckon with,” said Mickey Alam Khan, editor in chief of Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer, New York.

“However, issues such as limited screen estate, disparate platforms, in-house versus outsourced, SKU management, merchandising and returns all require a mobile commerce treatment that is vastly different from ecommerce,” he said. “Add to that the emergence of tablets as a viable shopping medium, and the complexities of engaging with customers on mobile gets more complicated.”

Shopping for doubleThe Mcommerce Summit is designed to offer senior executives and delegates clarity on how to proceed with the right mobile strategy that drives traffic not just to online or mobile commerce destinations but also to stores where the bulk of retail transactions still occur.

In addition to detailed presentations from retailers and financial institutions, the Mcommerce Summit will also showcase a panel of CEOs behind key mobile commerce efforts nationwide. These experts will offer tips on how to work through a rapidly changing retail landscape where mobile is becoming the key influencer of sales on-device and in-store, be it for shopping, searching, browsing or comparing prices.

Attendees will also get access to proprietary research on evolving mobile shopper behavior, data and other facts that will inform smart mobile commerce in the year ahead.

The event is priced at $495 for the day, which includes breakfast, lunch and cocktails.

9 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.Opening keynoteAmazon’s Zappos: What retailers and marketers can learn from a customer-centric focus on mobile user experienceZappos, the largest online retailer of footwear, is a byword for customer service in ecommerce. Its liberal returns policy has won it the loyalty of tens of millions of customers, not to mention the attention of Amazon, its new owner. After the initial build-out of applications and a strong mobile store, a key decision was made by the Henderson, NV-based Amazon subsidiary to focus on user experience – a critical need now as consumers expect more mature experiences from their online on smartphones and tablets. In this keynote, delegates will learn:

 How consumers react to Zappos on mobile
 How the move toward a customer-centric focus works for Amazon’s Zappos and what effect it has had on the company
 Zappos’ approach this year to experimenting on new features while maintaining the architecture of old features
 Early successes on innovations in mobile commerce, as well as ideas and strategies for this year
 How a small mobile team can move quickly in a big corporate environment

Speaker:
Alex Kirmse, head of mobile, Zappos

9:45 a.m. – 10 a.m.Break

10 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.ResearchHow the demanding mobile shopper is changing the face of retailAs the scales tip in the smartphone’s favor this year – one out of two subscribers nationwide will have Web- and application-enabled devices by 2012’s end – expect the dynamics of search, shopping, in-store behavior and purchasing to change. Add to that the enhanced digital experience of shopping on tablets. The newly empowered mobile shopper is not just influencing the design of online stores but also the relationship with the store – still retail’s biggest revenue channel. How should retailers and marketers react in this atmosphere where the role of store is being redefined like never before? This session will discuss:

 How the mobile shopper has evolved with the rapid proliferation of commerce-enabled devices
 How evolving mobile consumer behavior is forcing retailers to retail their stores and promotions
 Lessons learned from 2011 and the last holidays to prepare for the season ahead
 What and how consumers are buying on mobile
 Mobile stats and data to help craft informed decisions as the retailer-consumer relationship undergoes a sea-change

Speaker:
Joy Liuzzo, president, Wave Collapse LLC

10:45 a.m. – 11 a.m.Break

11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.KeynoteCiti: Beyond mobile banking: The new role of tabletsOne of the world’s largest financial institutions, Citi is also an early pioneer in mobile banking. Building trust with the consumer is key on mobile, and even more so when the party is a bank. The New York-based company’s products are geared to helping consumers bank on the go, including transferring funds between accounts, checking balancing and receiving alerts. In addition to applications, mobile Web site and a developing mobile payments strategy, Citi has a well-received tablet presence that is a role model not just to other financial institutions but also retailers and marketers dealing with sensitive consumer information and data. Delegates will learn:

 Citi’s take on mobile and how critical it is to the organization’s future
 How tablets are radically changing consumer expectations – just when marketers thought they had mastered mobile
 The Dawn of Tabletization: How and why the desktop experience needs to evolve to remain competitive
 How tablets are opening up a whole new world of insight and control for customers
 Desktop, mobile, tablets, touch and HTML5: the convergence of everything and what it means for the marketer, retailer or financial institution

Speaker:
Andres Wolberg-Stok, senior vice president and director of strategy for mobile and emerging technologies – North American Consumer Banking, Citi

11:45 a.m. – NoonBreak

Noon – 12:45 p.m.Pre-lunch keynoteAlon Brands: How the nation’s largest licensee of 7-Eleven stores boosted customer engagement and redemption rates with mobileAlon Brands’ raison d’etre is offering an optimal convenience store and fueling experience for customers. The Dallas, TX-based company operates more than 300 7-Eleven convenience stores. It also supplies and markets FINA motor fuels to more than 850 independent and company-owned retail locations. Three years ago, Alon began incorporating mobile marketing as part of its multichannel advertising and promotional efforts. Since then, customer engagement has increased and so have redemption rates. The session will discuss:

2 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.CEO TipsHow mobile commerce is redefining store-based retail, cataloging, ecommerce and marketingThe day is not far when retailers, marketers and financial institutions will have to put mobile first in their interactions with consumers. While mobile commerce revenue was estimated at only $8 billion last year, improved mobile devices, growing consumer confidence in mobile shopping and appealing mobile stores are set to catapult this new commerce medium into the fastest-growing in retail history. How will that spurt in growth affect retailer strategy for stores, catalogs and ecommerce, as well as promotions driving traffic between those channels? CEOs from leading mobile service providers will offer insight into:

 Whether mobile commerce’s growth similar to ecommerce
 What mobile-enabled information and pricing transparency means for retailers and marketers who are not nimble in mobile
 Key lessons learned from mobile commerce in 2011, including the holidays
 The thorniest mobile issues that retailers, brands, agencies and publishers should prepare to face
 Which mobile channels are proving themselves generators of ROI and traffic drivers to retail stores and why
 What role are Amazon, Apple, Google and eBay playing in mobile and how that affects all of retailing and marketing
 How close is mobile in upending existing business models

3 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.Post-lunch keynoteGeneral Growth Properties: How the nation’s No. 2 mall owner uses mobile to drive incremental sales and traffic to retail storesMobile is becoming key to driving traffic to General Growth Properties’ 136 regional and super-regional malls comprising approximately 140 million square feet of space. The real estate investment trust owns famed shopping centers such as the Ala Moana Center in Honolulu, HI; Tysons Galleria, Washington; Glendale Galleria, Los Angeles; and Water Tower Place, Chicago. The Chicago-based company is seeing 30 percent to 60 percent conversion rates through targeted mobile efforts that are timed to drive foot traffic to mall tenants within hours. It is also succeeding in capturing consumer mobile numbers through in-mall signage in common areas for opt-in timely offers via SMS. In this session, delegates will learn:

 General Growth Properties’ overall strategy to use mobile to drive more business to its retail tenants
 Keys to in-mall mobile optimization
 Results for and thinking behind a geo-fencing pilot in three malls
 A/B testing and time of day and time of week SMS promotions
 How the company built an SMS database for in-mall drives
 Learning from consumer interaction with the company’s mobile site, application and game
 What it takes to drive unplanned visits to stores

4 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.KeynoteTravelocity: How the leading travel retailer’s 360-degree mobile strategy anticipates evolving consumer behaviorTravel was one of the first categories, along with books and music, to migrate to the Internet. Now history is about to repeat itself with mobile. Travelocity, one of the leading travel sites, sees that roughly 55 percent of all bookings it receives from a mobile device or tablet come from its iPad application, making it a key ingredient in its digital strategy. A recent enhancement was daily deals delivered via through that app. In addition to the iPad app, Travelocity also has apps for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices as well as a mobile site. The keynote will discuss:

 How critical mobile is to Travelocity and the travel category’s future
 What advantages an online brand has in mobile and learnings that can be extrapolated
 How Travelocity crafts a mobile presence that enables searching and booking of air, hotel and car rentals in one experience
 Design elements to enable frictionless navigation
 The effectiveness of mobile-only deals as well as the inclusion of Top Secret Hotels